Thanksgiving

I attempt to write a food blog and it appears as though thanksgiving slipped right past me. Such is the life of a law student. I cannot wait until next year when I can actually enjoy the holiday instead of going through a to-do list for exams in my head (in past years it was actual information but I am a 3L and that means I am even WORSE than a college senior).

I spent some time the last week of classes browsing through cooking sites and blogs trying to come up with a new twist on our more traditional Thanksgiving. 3L remember? I found  two recipes I thought looked good. One was a total success, the other nearly caused my father to kick me out of the house.

The Good
We always have two cranberry sauces, one plain, one orange. This year we had three. Excessive yes, but it is just SO delicious. Epicurious had this amazing fig and port wine cranberry sauce that was to die for. Seriously, a little sweet, a little tart. I now want to cover everything in it. Goat cheese, ice cream, a pork loin...mmmmm. Sometimes the texture of figs bothers me but this was ok because the cranberries were pretty firm as well.

Photo from Epicurious.com

The Bad
Turkey. Everyone has a favorite recipe. But that can get boring. We have tried the whole fried turkey thing (nearly became a statistic in burning down the house), tried a lemon turkey (no one could eat it, epic disaster), and this year we tried a butter herb turkey. They recipe looked great. Granted, I didn't really read the directions, why bother? I wasn't the one cooking it and I was in class I needed to play on Facebook pay attention. The short story is the turkey took a LOT of fresh herbs, butter and time, and it ended up tasting like, turkey. But not particularly good turkey, just turkey. And the gravy that took 4 hours to make was gravy. Granted it was very, very, very buttery gravy.

Photo from Epicurious.com

The Ugly

Every family has that desert that someone ALWAYS makes. Ours is a bourbon pecan tart. I have made it countless times and for some reason (insanity) I was actually craving it this year (see being a 3L makes you do weird things). About half way through the process I realized I had never actually rolled out a pre made crust made the shell. EPIC FAIL. I had already wasted one pie shell so I just figured I would make a pie version. Not so delicious. Thankfully mom made mini Mississippi mud pies with lots of kaluha sauce and they were delicious. Sadly there is no picture of them as they were devoured immediately. 

Photo from CookingLight.com